Conklin said the damaged part would be shipped off to an independent source for study. He said the possible causes for the failure included: mechanical defect, design flaw, or damage in transportation. He said as the turbine was being brought in to town on State Route 227, the long semi-trailer "bottomed out," leaving gouges in the road. Stephen said the damaged part would be subjected to actual forensic study. She and Conklin said Performance Services Inc. (PSI), which owns the two wind turbines, and Nordic WindPower, which provided the turbines, sent their "A Team" to Tuesday's meeting.
Conklin said the damaged part would be shipped off to an independent source for study. He said the possible causes for the failure included: mechanical defect, design flaw, or damage in transportation. He said as the turbine was being brought in to town on State Route 227, the long semi-trailer "bottomed out," leaving gouges in the road. Stephen said the damaged part would be subjected to actual forensic study. She and Conklin said Performance Services Inc. (PSI), which owns the two wind turbines, and Nordic WindPower, which provided the turbines, sent their "A Team" to Tuesday's meeting.
Union City's wind turbine broke, and nobody knows for sure the cause of that failure. On Tuesday, workers took the blades down, and representatives of the companies involved in the turbine project met with Mayor Bryan Conklin and Randolph Eastern Superintendent Cathy Stephen.
Conklin said the damaged part would be shipped off to an independent source for study. He said the possible causes for the failure included: mechanical defect, design flaw, or damage in transportation. He said as the turbine was being brought in to town on State Route 227, the long semi-trailer "bottomed out," leaving gouges in the road.
Stephen said the damaged part would be subjected to actual forensic study. She and Conklin said Performance Services Inc. …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]Union City's wind turbine broke, and nobody knows for sure the cause of that failure. On Tuesday, workers took the blades down, and representatives of the companies involved in the turbine project met with Mayor Bryan Conklin and Randolph Eastern Superintendent Cathy Stephen.
Conklin said the damaged part would be shipped off to an independent source for study. He said the possible causes for the failure included: mechanical defect, design flaw, or damage in transportation. He said as the turbine was being brought in to town on State Route 227, the long semi-trailer "bottomed out," leaving gouges in the road.
Stephen said the damaged part would be subjected to actual forensic study. She and Conklin said Performance Services Inc. (PSI), which owns the two wind turbines, and Nordic WindPower, which provided the turbines, sent their "A Team" to Tuesday's meeting.
The city's wind turbine, on the south side of town, experienced a failure of one of its rotor blade's braking mechanisms during commissioning and testing of the unit on February 16. No one was harmed by the failure, and the turbine was locked down into safe mode.
The damaged turbine remained high in the air with the dangling tip for a week.
Meanwhile, testing has been limited at the school's turbine, located off of Plum Street on the north side of town.
Arlene Gavin, director of marketing for PSI, said, "If the failed blade had a manufacturing defect that is specific only to the failed blade, rotational testing will resume at the school site. If, however, the blade failure is a design flaw or manufacturing defect inherent within all installed blades, the resumption of rotational testing would depend on the replacement of the blades themselves."
If the blades have to be replaced, the final correction could take up to 90 days. The blades are manufactured in India, and a minimum of four weeks is required to ship the blades to Houston, Texas, with another week required for over-land transportation.
Testing and system commissioning that does not involve the blades rotating is continuing at both sites to include weather, control system, motor movement and other functions.
PSI has assured both the city and the school that they will not lose any money due to the wind turbine's problem, whatever it may be. The city and the school will be reimbursed for money they would have earned from the time the turbines were originally supposed to be functioning.
PSI is financing the joint city-school project, but the city and the school are due to share in the proceeds of the sale of the electricity generated by the turbines.
Gavin said her company has business disruption insurance on the project, so there should be no loss of income.
Conklin said, "We are protected on several fronts."
The $3.7 million wind turbine project was financed by PSI using a creative approach involving private financing and tax credits. The city donated the land for both sites, but neither the city nor the school incurred debt for the project.